Elias Khnaser,

Gartner Research Director

QUESTION 1

What are the hottest issues in cloud today?

Cloud computing and cloud services are the most pervasive and broadly impactful technical innovation facing enterprise IT today. It underpins many other technologies, such as big data, analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT). Organizations need the cloud’s scalable architecture to support on-demand capacity. Also, the cloud allows them to take advantage of many value-added services.

Organizations that take a “wait and see” approach run the risk of being disrupted by others in their industry. Organizations face challenges, however. They struggle with how to transform their organization so it’s prepared to deploy and manage cloud solutions. In addition, they must ensure that cloud solutions deliver ROI and manage ongoing cost optimization of public cloud services. As cloud providers continue to innovate, the market becomes increasingly competitive. It’s no longer one-size-fits-all; organizations look to the cloud for specific solutions rather than whole-scale migration. Because of this, organizations must establish a governance strategy for multiple public cloud platforms. A multi-provider strategy is also necessary to help organizations address the risk surrounding lock-in by selecting a second strategic partner.

Carlton Sapp,

Gartner Research Director

QUESTION 2

What are the hottest issues in AI and ML?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) continue to be a game changer for many organizations looking to automate decision making and process improvement. However, there are significant issues still very much in flux, including:

Integrating AI and ML solutions into new and existing business processes

Analytic deployment of AI and ML into operations

Finding the right skill set to solve business challenges

Understanding the optimal tooling needed to support AI and ML initiatives

Creating infrastructure needed to support AI and ML initiatives.

To fully utilize AI and ML, organizations will need to understand how to resolve these issues with new architectural, design and solution patterns that are “fit for purpose” to the organization, designed for the business and the technical professional.

Erik Heidt,

Gartner Research Vice President

QUESTION 3

How are organizations using IoT to deliver solutions?

Most IoT implementations involve the improvement and optimization of existing processes and services. IoT innovations enable taking processes and products to the next level. There are two primary mechanisms IoT uses to accomplish this. IoT enables vast amounts of information to be collected and pulled to places where better decisions can be made. Integrating with IoT endpoints, enterprise applications and third-party services allow IoT to create a rich base of facts and provide advanced analytical tools - a killer one-two punch that allows organizations to make a wide range of decisions that could not be made before.

The second major component is taking those insights and foresights and acting on them. Competitive advantages don’t arise just from knowing — the magic is in the doing. The same powerful integration capabilities that allow IoT systems to access the wide, rich ranges of data needed to make decisions also enable acting on those decisions. In our research, we identify this as “collect, decide, act,” and it is the core value chain for IoT.

Kirk Knoernschild,

Gartner Research Vice President

QUESTION 4

What are the biggest benefits of DevOps and agility?

The software development methodology war is finally over, and agility has won. The legacy methods of serial development are obsolete in the face of rapid modernization and the increasing demand to address dynamic customer needs. Agile methods focus on addressing business outcomes and customer needs through the rapid and iterative creation of products. By decreasing time to market and actively seeking regular end-user feedback, agile teams reduce risk, realize early value and increase overall return on investment.

“DevOps,” a term made up from “development” and “operations,” addresses the division that exists between the two teams. DevOps extends agile by applying agile values to tasks, such as deployment, environment configuration, monitoring and maintenance. DevOps reorganizes roles and practices to encourage collaboration between disciplines and to streamline the release-engineering, implementation and maintenance phases of the software development life cycle. Only IT teams that work together to support the entire software life cycle truly realize the promised gains of agility.

Agile methods and DevOps practices enable the delivery of high-value products that meet customer needs by providing the following benefits:

Mark Diodati,

Gartner Research Director

QUESTION 5

What makes Gartner Catalyst Conference different from other events?

Organizations are architecting and undergoing their digital business transformation, and technology is at the core of their journey. In fact, 77% of executive priorities are technology-dependent. On the quest to transform, businesses are confronted by a complex and diverse array of technology choices surrounding cloud computing, big data, IoT, DevOps, agility, analytics, artificial intelligence and more. Compounding the challenge is that IT is not moving with enough velocity. In fact, two thirds of business leaders feel they must speed the pace of digital transformation. No organization has the bandwidth to build its complete suite of technology solutions from the ground up. In a complex world of interconnected platforms, ecosystems are imperative. They allow you to acquire critical technology and integrate seamlessly with third parties. Ecosystems allow larger organizations to focus on innovation and smaller organizations to compete.

Catalyst is the conference to help you understand and leverage the latest technology trends and develop the skills necessary for digital business transformation. Gartner Catalyst Conference is the industry’s only multirole technology conference providing an unbiased view of the hottest technologies that will shape the future of your digital business. The conference delivers insight for all roles in IT, giving your team the deep insight necessary to guide its most crucial technology initiatives.

With more than 60 Gartner analysts, the Catalyst Conference offers an abundance of actionable how-to advice across a broad range of technical topics, focusing on the accelerating technology challenges of digital business. This one-of-a-kind learning experience delivers drill-down content and proactive guidance you won’t find anywhere else – for every technical role and responsibility. See how you can make a difference within your organization by attending Gartner Catalyst Conference in San Diego, August 12-15, 2019